The Gremlins. From the Walt Disney Production. A Royal Air Force Story.

DAHL, Roald.

Published by New York: Random House, 1943

About this Item

First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "To Michael Biddle, from Roald Dahl. 14/6/43". The US copyright card catalogue provides a publication date of 10 May 1943, and this copy is therefore inscribed within a few weeks of publication. Writing in 2006, the Disney historian Leonard Maltin described the volume as "a milestone" and a "charming book". During the summer of 1943, Dahl received an invitation to spend the weekend with the Roosevelts at Hyde Park, the president's country retreat on the Hudson River. This copy was signed around this time for Michael Biddle, then aged around nine. Biddle (1934-2013) became a notable painter and printmaker, who lived in Croton-on-Hudson for most of his life. The stamps are for Hessian Hills School, in Croton-on-Hudson, which was a progressive school founded in 1925. It closed in 1952. The Gremlins was the author's first book. It was written as a promotional device for a feature-length Disney animation that was never produced, partly because the studio could not establish firm copyright in the "gremlin" characters (Dahl claimed to have invented them, though they had been common currency in the RAF and had appeared in print at least once before) and partly because the British Air Ministry wanted final approval of the script and production. It was eventually agreed that royalties would be split between the RAF Benevolent Fund and Dahl. The book is described on the title and the front cover as being "From the Walt Disney Production"; the Disney studio wrote to Dahl in August 1943, after publication, cancelling any further preproduction work. Leonard Maltin, "The Gremlins Got 'Em" in Roald Dahl, The Gremlins, 2006. Quarto. Coloured illustrations throughout. Original red cloth-backed illustrated boards, spine lettered in black, yellow and red pictorial endpapers. Extremities worn with some minor loss, creases and bubbling to rear cover, some light soiling to spine, contents a little finger-soiled, some closed tears to occasional leaves, ink stamps to two pages, some scattered foxing: a good copy.

Seller Inventory # 180514

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Gremlins. From the Walt Disney Production. A Royal Air Force Story.
• Publisher: New York: Random House, 1943
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)